Summary

A critical first step in the analysis of qualitative data involves getting to know your data through several types of reading, followed by an iterative process of coding and categorizing chunks of that data into themes. Qualitative data, including focus group transcripts, can generate tens or hundreds of pages of information. Coding is one way of tracking and managing the volumes of information. There are several computer assisted software packages that can supplement and improve pen and paper coding processes. This section introduced ATLAS.ti, a powerful workbench for managing large bodies of textual, graphical, audio, and video data.